KOCHI: Development issues will be the focal point of bypoll campaigning for both the UDF and the LDF in Piravom. Though issues related to the state and the Central governments will be talked about in the election, the UDF and LDF candidates, Anoop Jacob and M J Jacob, respectively, point out that Piravom-specific developmental activities and other local issues will be the core topics of discussion in the constituency.M J Jacob, who represented the constituency from 2006 to 2011, said he was approaching the people on the basis of the development works he had undertaken during his five-year stint as MLA. A person, who comes from the grass-roots level, Jacob said the people of Piravom knew him well. “I am also a man of no controversies,” he said.“More than anything, people would analyse the developmental activities during my five years as MLA and the more than 20 years of UDF dominance in the constituency,” he said.Anoop Jacob, who is a novice in politics, also makes it clear that the developmental activities that the UDF had brought in the constituency would be the main poll plank. “We are approaching the people to give the UDF a chance to continue the development activities that have already been started,” he said. “My father had launched a series of developmental activities in the constituency and my priority will be to complete the projects,” said Anoop Jacob.Meanwhile, District Congress Committee president V J Paulose said that, apart from the Piravom-specific issues, the performance of the Oommen Chandy government, which was instrumental in bringing in several welfare activities, would also be discussed.However, CPM district secretary M V Govindan said that all the achievements that the government boasts of would only boomerang. “As Piravom is basically an agrarian constituency, issues related to farmers will be widely discussed,” he said.The anti-people policies of the Chandy government, farmers’ suicides, rising prices of essential commodities and rise in fertiliser prices will be the core issues that will be highlighted in the campaign, he said.When the two fronts are fighting it out on the development issues, the BJP is keen on raising the clout of the Indian Union Muslim League in the ministry.“The government is being led by the Muslim League,” BJP general secretary A N Radhakrishnan said. The constituency has not seen any development programmes, for which both the fronts had to be blamed and this would be highlighted in the campaign, he said.
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